Featured XBLIG

Featured XBLIG
Join Wordsworth the Owl on his mission to solve “KrissX®”-ed word puzzles, for the first time on Xbox LIVE Arcade! Switch around letters to complete mind boggling terms and use helpful hints to achieve reward badges and high scores. Venture through 150 c

If you’ve ever played Cave Story, La Mulana or Spelunky, you should already be turning on your Xbox to buy Tobe’s Vertical Adventure. If you’re new to the genre, which I suppose could be called “Retro-Bit Adventure Platforms,” if you wanted to give it a pretentious name, well then, you now have a whole pile of enjoyable gaming to work through, starting with this gem. In a retro platformer, the emphasis is usually on challenging gameplay and cutesy graphics. Tobe’s Vertical Adventure achieves both of those with ease, providing a riveting challenge well worth your time.

Each stage begins at the top of a labyrinth of gems, monsters, and death traps, and the goal is safely traverse downward, get to an oversized treasure chest, and then escape while the labyrinth collapses around you. While the easy levels can be brute-forced rather easily, the later levels require pre-planning, as you place a limited amount of ropes to control your descent, or use balloons to guide your free-fall. To demand even further finesse, there are slight upgrades your character can earn by collecting enough of the gems and stranded animals through the levels, truly rewarding the skilled and thoughtful player.

Artistically, the game has an endearing level of charm to it – the game starts off with a person so addicted to their xbox that they have to be dumped into the most exciting and dangerous ADVENTURE! of their life. And if it should come to pass that one big-headed adventurer running around the screen isn’t enough for you, Tobe’s Vertical Adventure ups the ante by offering local co-op play. The levels are the same, but the gameplay is sure more enjoyable when you can have another platform junkie right beside you.

As far as I’m concerned, the game starts 2010 for the XBLIG scene off on a perfect note: I’m looking forward to an entire year of well-polished and creative games just like this, pushing new game designs and fun replayability into our 360s. But, lest I too loudly toot my horn, Tobe’s Vertical Adventure is still a small ways from perfect – the developer has admitted that Analog stick support is still to come in an upcoming patch(hopefully using the pressure-sensor in the controller, depreciating the run button), and has noted that their website, http://tobesadventure.squarespace.com/, is still in development:

“We gonna have some interesting downloads [on our site] in the next couple of days/ weeks. Things like instruction manual, or music soundtracks (you will need to unlock the password from the game), etc.

It’s going to be fun, so drop by, and perhaps say hi in the guestbook if you have the time ;)”

Considering how awesome Tobe’s Vertical Adventure is, you can bet I will.

Featured XBLIG No.2

Featured XBLIG No.2
Banana Split is a 2D Puzzle/Platformer set in the exciting world of BREAKFAST! You play as Ben Ana, a banana with a top hat and a mission. That mission is to stop the unhealthy breakfast foods from turning breakfast into a bad meal. Ben will jump on heads

One of the best xblig runners out there! Unique music tracks and Sega Sonic-like mechanics but using your avatar instead of Sonic characters! Liked very much but would have appreciated a user-selectable slower training (or easy) mode. Keep up the excellent developments!

Hmm, this definitely wastn't the best game i have played but it was ok i guess. i am hoping the next release will be an improvement. Some of the sound FX reminded by of pokie machines that you can find on sites like . I really hope that they can get this game to a level where it's like the computer software program called Traktor. I spend hours on […]

everyone loves to doodle and this helps waste away a few hours when the nagging starts around dinner time. The controller can be a bit difficult to get the pic exactly as you would like it but its good enough. it reminds be of another cool website http://www.doodletoo.com/

i can see the effort put into this game. it looks great and has a interesting leveling system and it has charm but... i personally gound the lack of auto-aim unforgivably annoying, i found it easier to move my avatar around to hit enemies rather than my crosshair... it's the only reason i don't play in more than short spurts […]

Face Plant Adventures is about a plant, a sentient plant, with a face. It brings to mind Audrey II of little shop of horrors, except quite a bit more mobile, and a little less sinister. The game is far from attractive, being limited by the restrictions of the xbox live indie games size limits. But what it does have is an appreciation for that limitation, it […]

Looks like Archor is back with more crap. I'm not sure if someone is actually paying for his God awful games, with each one being the same thing (take Google Maps and put avatars or awful vehicle models in the map that have no animations whatsoever), but somehow this guy keeps on putting them out. They're the same thing every time. There was one I […]